Residents Push Back Against 290-Apartment Mixed-Use Proposal

BET Investments has shown the public its latest vision to transform a 20-acre wooded tract into a mixed-use development.

BET Investments presented the updated proposal to the Middletown Township Planning Commission last Wednesday. Because the presentation was strictly conceptual, the commission took no action and made no formal recommendation.

Township officials expect the plans to be formally submitted for consideration at a later date.

The development company is seeking a zoning change to convert the land at the corner of North Flowers Mill Road and East Maple Avenue (Route 213) from its current R1 residential designation to a Community Mixed Use overlay district.

BET Investments intends to purchase the wooded parcel from Woods Services.

The conceptual plan features 290 apartment units ranging from 850 to 2,000 square feet, offering one-, two-, and three-bedroom layouts. A central residential building designed to wrap around an interior courtyard, a resident parking structure, and commercial spaces fronting Maple Avenue, including a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store, other retailers, a standalone restaurant, and two retail pad sites.

Michael Markman, president of BET Investments, said the project is modeled after the company’s Promenade at Upper Dublin development in Montgomery County, but the Middletown proposal would be roughly half its size.

The Promenade at Upper Dublin’s demographic leans heavily toward residents aged 65 and older, and he expects a similar trend in Middletown Township, Markman said.

“We create a mixed use community so that people can shop and live on the same site,” Markman said. “We always want to have a supermarket so you can go down and buy your food and you don’t have to worry about getting your car and going anywhere.”

As part of its plan, BET Investments pitched a $1.5 million realignment of South Flowers Mill Road.

The developer’s traffic consultant, Mark Roth, said the upgrade would eliminate a clustered bottleneck near the Route 1 interchange by merging two closely spaced signalized intersections into a single, optimized traffic light. The goal would be to improve traffic along Maple Avenue between Langhorne Borough and Wheeler Way.

“We are eliminating the signal, the clustered intersection,” Roth explained. “There’s two signals that are closely spaced. So, yes, we’re eliminating a traffic signal of those two clusters and putting a signal where it’s more beneficial.”

Roth added that the realignment would boost the intersection’s level of service by at least one full letter grade. “We’re not just mitigating our traffic, we’re mitigating the traffic that’s already on the roads today,” he said.

On the loss of the trees at the site, Markman said that the site’s trees predominantly grew after 1980 on what was previously a farmed field. He noted the company is willing to preserve trees on adjacent Woods Services land as an offset.

The proposal faced pushback during the meeting, which was similar to negative feedback from a public meeting last December.

Neighbors voiced concerns regarding building height, traffic congestion, and potential flooding.

Larry Zetterberg, a resident of nearby Langhorne Borough, warned that a creek going through the land would cause a flooding hazard if the woods are removed.

“If you don’t do some real good remediation and you do the adequate planning for that, you’re going to have all types of problems when the superstorm comes around,” Zetterberg said.

Carol Zetterberg, a representing the Langhorne Open Space Land Trust and its 200 member families, said the group has staunch opposition to the density of the project.

“Something that adds this much traffic, when you think of what, 440 parking spaces in their garage, 200 and some additional units to an area that cannot handle the roads, cannot handle it now, is just an unspeakable travesty,” she told the planners.

Township resident Deb Harker expressed disappointment that Woods Services would agree to sell the property for the BET Investments plan.

“I wanted to point out it’s a five-story building,” Harker said. “It completely changes the look and character of this area and I completely object to that.”

Planning Commission member Amber Watson-Tardiff told the developer the plan felt “inappropriate for what you’re looking to accomplish,” telling the firm to look closer at township-wide congestion and adding the units do not appear affordable for families.

Planner Jacob Farbman pointed out that retail and service employees working at the businesses at the site would likely be unable to afford to live in the proposed apartments.

Markman acknowledged that Farbman’s assessment was accurate.

Peter Tantala, a planning commission member, raised a number of concerns, including about road impacts, disturbing nearby historic areas, concerns about too little parking, and the removal of so many trees.

According to a fiscal impact analysis submitted to the planner, the project would generate approximately $140,000 in annual tax benefits to the township and nearly $900,000 to the local school district.

By comparison, the analysis claims that developing the land under its current R1 zoning into 18 single-family homes would result in a net loss of $119,000 to the school district.